Monday, April 30, 2012

Random Weekend Casserole

I like to collect squashes, or is it squashs..? Squashai? Anyway, they're cute, and make good decorations for my table, plus they have such good armor that they'll happily survive the entire year without going bad.

Still, if its between me and fixing hunger, a pretty gourd will definetly come second to a delicious bowl of squash casserole.

I didn't have a recipe, didn't even know what I was going to create, I just went for it, knife in hand. And it wasn't half bad, so I thought I'd record my experiment here, for the next time a pumpkin comes to visit.

Pour some olive oil into a big lidded casserole dish, and throw in everything, season with salt and pepper, and finally drizzle over done more oil. Stick in the oven at 190c for an hour with the lid on, then stir, and give it another 20 mins without the lid. Chopped parsley/spring onions would make a good garnish once out if the oven.

The great thing about this kind of dish is you could basically stick in anything and it would still be nice! I used up a globe courgette in there too although I wouldn't recommend them in here for the fussy eaters: Mine came out a bit bitter, which I don't care about at all, but for the more delicate palette, stick to veggies that are tasty in their own right, like spinach, butternut squash, sweet potato, leek, cabbage. Avoid aubergine, courgette, tempeh, or anything that needs to be imbued with a different flavour.

I recently watched a film called The Ramen Girl, and you'll never guess what it inspired me to cook... Whilst I wouldn't particularly recommend the film, nothing beats a delicious bowl of noodles in a warming gingery miso broth.

Fried onions, chilli, garlic and ginger in my favourite cast iron skillet, spiced with shichimi http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shichimi and cooked with a few leaves of savoy cabbage, sweetheart cabbage, pak choi, and carrots. Soya sauce, mirin and rice vinegar for liquid flavouring. The broth was simply dried shitake, miso paste, and wakame and hot water, which I used to "clean" my pan out once I'd finished with it. Topped with pickled mustard greens, and nori flakes.